FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Economic Development Between India and China Is Soaring

May 13, 2018 (EIRNS)—During their historic April 26-27 “informal summit” in Wuhan, China, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, while walking and taking a boat ride, launched a new era of peace and cooperation.

They discussed as high priorities, “strengthening India-China relations,” as Prime Minister Modi put it, and economic development. Bubbling just beneath the surface, is the explosion in Indian-Chinese trade, joint infrastructure projects, and cross-border investment. During 2017, Indian-Chinese two way trade leapt 18.6% to $84.4 billion from its 2016 level of $71.2 billion. This, despite the effect of increased tensions over the Doklam border dispute high in the Himalayan Mountains. Given that these are the world’s two most populous countries, there is room for much greater growth.

A May 1 Forbes article, entitled “How China Is Positioning Itself Among India’s Top 10 Investors Despite Bilateral Differences,” reported that in 2017, “China’s Sany Heavy Industry planned an investment of $9.8 billion in India.” Sany is China’s leading engineering machinery manufacturer, specializing in equipment for road construction, port machinery, concrete pumps, mobile cranes, etc. This is part of a larger operation. The Oct. 16, 2017 Economic Times of India, in its article “Led by Chinese, Nearly 600 Companies Line Up $85 Billion Investments in India,” reported that the Chinese companies “Pacific Construction, China Fortune Land Development, and Dalian Wanda ... are each planning investments of more than $5 billion during this period.” This planned investment of Sany and these three other Chinese companies is above $25 billion alone.

This is coordinated with “Invest India” which is seeking foreign investment.

Further, China is helping build Kolkata’s metro rail system, as the Beijing-based China Railway Stock won the bid to provide 112 advanced train-coaches to the city. The advanced coaches that will provide real-time footage of coaches to the driver, who would be able to act swiftly in the event of any disturbance. The same company has a contract to supply similar coaches to Nagpur metro, and a separate joint venture unit in India’s northern state of Haryana to manufacture and repair locomotive engines.

But further accelerating the economic and equally political relations, is that the Chinese-created multilateral development Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has approved funding for $1 billion worth of projects in India, and according to a Feb. 28 Bloomberg story, is considering about $1 billion more. India is by far, the largest recipient of AIIB investment. This includes a $200 million investment in New Delhi’s National Infrastructure Investment Fund.

Xi and the Chinese clearly are making a major investment to realize stronger China-India relations, exemplified by the April 27-28 informal summit.